I’m heading from my Long Island home into New York City today, attending the Intermedia Partner Summit — where roughly 80 to 120 MSPs will discuss cloud computing and hosted PBX opportunities. Much has changed since I commuted to the city as part of my daily routine from 2004 to 2006. For starters, I’m seemingly always connected to the Internet — thanks to a MiFi service from Verizon Communications. Although the service costs about $60 per month, I suspect it saves me about $100 per month on hotel and airport WiFi fees. And MiFi sure does come in handy on a passenger train.

Without MiFi I would have awoken two hours earlier to check the Nine Lives Media Inc. blogs and start updating our websites. But with MiFi, I’m able to continually update our sites from the “comfort” of the Long Island Railroad commuter train. It’s a one-hour ride, which means roughly one our of additional productivity — minus a few minutes for tunnel interference and the occasional lost connection.

During the typical month, I suspect I’m in a hotel room roughly eight to 10 nights. Plus I’m in airports roughly eight times. At $10 per location, that’s roughly $160 to $180 in potential WiFi service provider fees. But instead of signing up for those individual daily services, I lean heavily on MiFi.

Oops. My train has almost reached its destination. I’ll resurface at the Intermedia Partner Summit within an hour or so. And I’ll surely have an Internet connection. Thanks to MiFi.

James: I have to admit… I have a somewhat guilty smile while commuting on a train or blogging live from a conference session using MiFi, while others around me are stuck with poor shared WiFi services or no service at all. MiFi ain’t perfect… performance can lag… but it sure beats being cut off from the Net. Thanks for sharing your views from the UK. Please keep us posted on your business and let me know if you ever attend conferences in the U.S.
-jp

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